Posted on 08/20/2007 4:32:42 AM PDT by Ghayyour
A Mexican woman whose fight to stay in the US with her US-born son attracted national attention has been sent back to Mexico as an illegal immigrant. Elvira Arellano was arrested in Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon and deported several hours later.
She became a prominent figure after taking refuge in a Chicago church for a year to avoid being separated from eight-year-old Saul, a US citizen.
He is staying with people who were with her when she was arrested.
Ms Arellano was handed over to Mexican authorities in Tijuana at 2200 (0500GMT) and freed, Mexican officials said.
Elvira Arellano and Saul made a powerful emotional case for keeping the families of illegal immigrants together.
Last November, Saul went to Mexico's Congress to make a personal appeal for help to stop his mother's deportation.
Ms Arellano took refuge in the Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago last August, defying a deportation order.
But this weekend she left the church to travel to Los Angeles to back calls for immigration reform.
On Saturday, Ms Arellano had said she was not afraid of being arrested by US immigration officials.
"From the time I took sanctuary the possibility has existed that they arrest me in the place and time they want," she said.
"I only have two choices. I either go to my country, Mexico, or stay and keep fighting. I decided to stay and fight."
Ms Arellano first came illegally to the US in 1997. She was deported but returned days later.
She settled in Chicago, working as a cleaner at O'Hare International Airport, where she was arrested in 2002 and convicted of being employed under a false Social Security number.
Defying the law
Ms Arellano was supposed to hand herself over for deportation on 15 August 2006, but instead sought refuge with her son at the Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago.
US authorities did not attempt to seize her from the church.
Immigrants' rights campaigners said they would stage protests and vigils to support her and demand her return to the US.
But a group favouring limits on immigration said her arrest was long overdue.
"Just because the woman has gone public and made an issue of the fact that she is defying law doesn't mean the government doesn't have to do its job," Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform told the Associated Press.
Sounds like a plan.
Well, I don’t know what the case is (circuit or district level), but if it’s treated as the law, it is the law until it’s overruled.
It will be a long wait. Her son can't sponsor her until he reaches 21.
Exactly right. I am sure that her son has already been issued a US Passport.
Haven't you heard...some animals are more equal than others!
Hey,
BBC.
Please
start
using
paragraphs
because
single-sentences
make
you
look
like
grade-schoolers.
Illegal Aliens don't believe they are subject to our jurisdiction and may come here when ever and how ever they please, therefore their prodigy should not be granted citizenship.
What they "believe" is not the issue. Plenty of Americans believe that the law does not apply to them, and they are equally wrong.
Illegals are subject to our laws, including the laws they broke to enter our country. That's how we can punish them (that we don't punish them enough notwithstanding). That passage was meant to refer to diplomats and others who by virtue of their position are truly above most laws.
I agree that it has been too-widely defined, but that is because the language itself is not sufficiently specific. The proper response to such a deficiency in the wording of the law is to change the law, as I have advocated in the past.
It is important that we follow the law, even when dealing with the lawless.
Her son was allowed to speak before the Mexican Congress to plead her case, when he did so it was as a Mexican citizen pleading for the rights of his mother as a Mexican citizen.
They cannot have it both ways. Send him home to be with his mother. Send him to Mexico.
One can simultaneously be a citizen of the US and the citizen of Mexico. Our government recognizes dual citizenship. We can argue that it shouldn't be allowed, but that's another subject altogether.
We must also make sure that anyone who commits a crime (including the crime of breaking into the country) is forever banned from citizenship. Her son is a US citizen under our laws, so if he has a guardian here he should be allowed to stay. But his mother is not, and will never be, welcome in our nation.
Her son can’t sponsor her until he reaches 21.
Missed that tidbit. Great news. Now why don’t we just end the bull crap of allowing someone to cross the border and automatically the newborn becomes a US Citizen. Was that the process our founding fathers had in mind?
The MSM has not covered this story much if at all.
Only in places where the net watchers would see it.
A long one. Will read it. Thank you.
Its not a totally lost art their are still allot of operators using cw.come join us.
That was quick... is it true?
The lawyers will be disappointed
Anybody know who and where Saul’s father is?
“Heigh-Ho Silver...away.....”
Why go through all that?
You back up a vehicle to the church door, and go in and throw her onto the vehicle, and simply drive away. No cameras, no screaming no nothing.
Apparently those in Chicago couldn't figure that out.
Been along time for me,though I enjoyed it,,my Dads’ rig burnt in a house fire..Use to work on Shipboard Electronics,,really liked those main stations..If you would , point me in the right direction for a good rig,,been close to 30 yrs..Thanks Biker
...and 11,999,999 to go...
I wish I had thought to have added your comment to mine. It really fits.
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